(CTN News) – The intriguing rock that the six-wheeled geologist discovered may have supported microbiological life billions of years ago, but further investigation is required.
NASA’s Perseverance rover’s scientific team is seeing a vein-filled rock. The arrowhead-shaped rock, which the crew came to refer to as “Cheyava Falls,” has intriguing characteristics that might help answer the issue of whether or not microscopic life ever resided on Mars.
According to the data analysed by the rover’s equipment, the rock has characteristics that make it a potential sign of ancient life. The rock displays structures and chemical traces that may have been created by life billions of years ago when the rover was exploring an area with flowing water. The scientific team is examining other explanations for the reported traits; more investigation will be necessary to ascertain the viability of ancient life as an explanation.
The rock, which is the rover’s 22nd rock core sample, was taken on July 21 when the vehicle was exploring the northern part of Neretva Vallis, an old river valley that is 400 metres (a quarter of a mile) wide and was formed long ago by water flowing into Jezero Crater.
“We made sure the Perseverance route goes to places where there could be interesting scientific samples,” said Nicola Fox, assistant administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate at Washington’s NASA Headquarters. “Our exploration of the Neretva Vallis riverbed paid off, as we discovered something unprecedented that will provide our scientists with a wealth of material for study.”
The rover’s SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics & Chemicals) instrument has scanned Cheyava Falls many times and found evidence of organic molecules. These carbon-based compounds can be created by non-biological processes, even though they are thought to be the building blocks of life.
According to Ken Farley, the project scientist for Perseverance at Caltech in Pasadena, “Cheyava Falls is the most perplexing, complex, and potentially important rock yet investigated by Perseverance.”
“On the one hand, we have striking evidence of organic material for the first time, unique colourful patches that point to chemical processes that may provide energy for microbial life, and proof that water—a vital component of life—once permeated the rock. However, we are unable to pinpoint the specific process of rock formation or the degree to which adjacent rocks may have heated Cheyava Falls and contributed to these characteristics.
The crew has also been captivated by more information on the rock, which has dimensions of 3.2 feet by 2 feet (1 metre by 0.6 metres) and was named after a Grand Canyon waterfall.
How Do Rocks Become Placed?
The Perseverance expedition has concentrated on rocks that might have been formed or altered by water long ago in its hunt for evidence of prehistoric microbial life. The crew focused on Cheyava Falls because of this.
“SHERLOC was designed to find organic matter because it is a crucial element in the hunt for extraterrestrial life,” said Kevin Hand, the mission’s chief investigator from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California.
Vast white veins of calcium sulphate run the length of the rock. The reddish-coloured bands of material in between those veins indicate the existence of haematite, one of the minerals that gives Mars its characteristic rusty colour.
Upon closer inspection, Perseverance discovered hundreds of irregularly shaped, millimetre-sized, off-white splotches surrounded by black substances, like leopard spots. The PIXL (Planetary Instrument for X-ray Biochemistry) instrument at Perseverance has shown that iron and phosphate are present in these dark halos.
David Flannery, an astrobiologist and part of the Queensland University of Technology’s Perseverance scientific team, remarked, “These spots are a big surprise.” “On Earth, these kinds of rock features are frequently linked to the preserved record of subterranean microbes.”
This kind of spotting may appear on sedimentary terrestrial rocks when hematite-related chemical processes cause the rock to become white instead of red. Additionally, such processes may release phosphate and iron, which might lead to the formation of black halos. This kind of reaction may provide microorganisms with energy, which explains why microbes and similar characteristics coexist in a terrestrial environment.
According to one theory that the Perseverance scientific team is thinking through, organic substances combined with mud were first used to deposit Cheyava Falls, which then solidified into granite. The spots were caused by enormous white calcium sulphate veins that were generated by mineral deposits that were made possible by a second event of fluid flow that later broke through rock cracks.
One more piece of the puzzle
Though the markings on the leopard and the living materials are fascinating, the research team is having trouble understanding other features of the granite at Cheyava Falls. They were shocked to discover that olivine, a mineral that develops from magma, is present in these veins in the form of millimetre-sized crystals. The olivine may have developed in relation to rocks farther up the river valley rim, which may have been created by magma crystallisation.
In that case, the researchers need to address the possibility that the leopard spots were produced by an abiotic chemical process in which the olivine and sulphate were added to the rock at temperatures too high for human habitation.
Farley said, “We have imaged that rock literally day and night from just about every angle imaginable and zapped it with lasers and X-rays.” From a scientific standpoint, perseverance is at its limit. To get a complete understanding of the events that occurred in the Martian river valley at Jezero Crater billions of years ago, we would want to return the Cheyava Falls sample to Earth so that it may be examined using sophisticated laboratory equipment.
Additional Mission Details
Astrobiology is a major goal of Perseverance’s mission on Mars, which includes storing samples that could have evidence of prehistoric microbial life in them. In addition to being the first mission to gather and store Martian rock and regolith, the rover will pave the way for human exploration of the Red Planet by characterising the planet’s geology and historical climate.
NASA’s Mars Sample Return Programme is intended to deploy spacecraft to Mars in collaboration with the European Space Agency (ESA) to retrieve these sealed samples from the surface and bring them back to Earth for comprehensive examination.
NASA’s Moon to Mars exploration strategy, which includes the Artemis moon missions to help get ready for human exploration of the Red Planet, includes the Mars 2020 Perseverance mission. The Perseverance rover is designed and operated by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which is overseen by Caltech.
Source: www.jpl.nasa.gov
